Golf this week... First round recaps..

The BMW Championship at Cog Hill just outside Chicago is the last of the 3 playoffs prior to the Tour Championship in 2 weeks in Atlanta..

The top 70 left after last week in the Fed Ex standings will be whittled down to the last 30.

At least this year we don't know who the winner is already like we did with Vijay a couple of years ago, and here's another example with Tiger out of the mix, how exciting it could become..

PGA TOUR

BMW Championship
Cog Hill G&CC
Lemont, Ill.,
Purse $7.5m  1st  $1.35m
Defending Champion   Tiger Woods
Canuck  Stephen Ames  69th

It's down to the short strokes for the $10m Fed Ex... So here are the top 10 in Fed Ex points

1. Matt Kuchar
2. Charley Hoffman
3. Steve Stricker
4. Jason Day
5. Luke Donald
6. Martin Laird
7. Ernie Els
8. Hunter Mahan
9. Geoff Ogilvy
10. Justin Rose

Matt Kuchar opened up with a brilliant -7 64 to take the first round lead. In form, but not selected to the Ryder Cup squad Ryan Moore is a shot back at -6 65. Ian Poulter is next at -5 66, Retief Goosen -4 67 then Justin Rose , Luke Donald and Brian Gay all at -3 68..

Tiger since you will be asking had an up and down day and finished at +2 73. His round consisted of some errant driving, poor putting and bad mental mistakes mixed in with some absolutely brilliant recovery shots which saved the round from a 76 or worse.

Today he is -1 thru 9 holes, T34 and at #51 in the Fed Ex points... Remember only the top 30 go through

Stephen Ames opened with a +3 74 and is off at 1.20pm today

European Tour

KLM Open
Hilversum Holland
Hilversumsche G &CC
Purse $2.3 m
Winner  $386,950

Weak field as most top Euros rest..

LPGA Tour.

Arkansas Championship
Rogers Ark
Pinnacle Pinnacle CC
Purse  $2m  Wiiner  $300m
c
Canucks   Alena Sharp +3 74,  Lorie Kane 1.37, Samantha Richdale 2.21, Lisa Meldrum 3.05,

NATIONWIDE TOUR

Utah Chanpionship
Sandy Utah
Willow Creek CC (7104 par 71)
$550,000 1st prize $99,000
Canucks : David Morland-4 67, Ted Brown 3 74, Barrett Jarosche +1 72, Bryan De Corso +5 76

I haven't seen any off this but can tell you of the Canucks, David Morland opened with a -4 67 and started play T5... He is currently E thru 7 as I write

The leader is Cliff Kresge at -7...

Guys like Mark Brooks and Jim McGovern, Bob May, Frank Lickliter, Skip Kendell, Steve Pate, Mark Hensby and Paul Stankowski, all proven PGA Tour pros are in this field, it shows you how deep this tour is.


CANADIAN TOUR

Next event  Nov 1   Desert Dunes Championship, Palm Springs, Calif.

Bryan Angus   bryanangus4@gmail.com